


A Yellow Field in the Backroads

by RandomFandomJasper



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Sonic The Hedgehog - Freeform, maddie wachowski - Freeform, sonic movie, sonic wachowski - Freeform, tom wachowski - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:35:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomFandomJasper/pseuds/RandomFandomJasper
Summary: Tom and Sonic love driving around. Especially now that they weren't being chased down by crazy government officials. It's usually a smooth ride. Usually.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 133





	A Yellow Field in the Backroads

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone remember that one song by Post Malone? The one in 'Into the Spiderverse'? No particular reason. I was just wondering.

Ever since almost dying on a road trip to San Francisco, Tom and certain blue hedgehog took some time every couple of weeks to go take a drive. It was an unofficial tradition, and Maddie understood that it was kind of just a _them_ thing.

Sometimes they picked out a destination and sometimes they didn’t. Honestly it was just fun to hang out with Sonic for a few hours and drive aimlessly. Gave them a chance to talk and let Sonic see a little more of Earth without potentially exposing himself.

It wouldn’t seem like much fun to most people, but most people hadn’t been living in fear and isolation for ten years. A crooked road sign could entertain Sonic for five minutes, laughing and speculating what happened and wondering if he should fix it and ‘oh my god did someone _paint_ on that one?’.

So yeah. It was usually pretty great.

Sonic pushed the buttons on the radio absently. “Any destination in mind?”

“Nah,” Tom replied as he batted Sonic’s hand away from the radio controls. “Think we’re just gonna drift for a while and see what we come across.”

“Sounds good. I’m always up for an adventure _._ ” Sonic sat back in his seat. “So long as I can hop out every now and then.”

Tom gave him a warning glance. “Give me a heads up first.”

Sonic waved his hand flippantly. “Yeah yeah, I know. I promise I will _not_ jump out the window without permission.” He started rolling down the window. “But just in case, I’m-”

“Nope,” Tom said. “Roll that back up.”

“I’m not gonna jump out.” He took his hands off the controls. “Halfway down. Deal?”

Tom narrowed his eyes. “Okay, halfway down, but not any further than that.”

“You got it, Donut Lord.” Sonic drummed his fingers the door. “You know, these trips are really cool. Because the world is, like, _huge._ And we only drive for a few hours, but you could see a lot in a few hours, and there’s still so much _more_ to see later, you know?”

“Yeah, Earth’s a pretty big place,” Tom agreed. “You never really run out of new experiences here.” He took a left at the next intersection.

They usually took a right to heads toward a highway that could take them pretty far in a short amount of time, but Tom decided to take a scenic route. Sonic seemed more restless than usual, so he’d probably need to take a run soon. The highway wasn’t a good place for that.

“I mean, just think: there are whole other _continents,_ ” Tom said, “You could explore every inch of this mass of land we’re on and still have six other ones you could explore.”

Sonic tilted his head thoughtfully. “Yeah… I’m not so sure I’d want to explore Antarctica though. It’s cold down there.”

“You know the continents?” Tom asked. “No offense, but I kinda figured that you didn’t have an education.”

“I don’t,” said Sonic. “But classrooms have windows, and there was stuff I wanted to know. Like reading? I definitely learned to read by hanging around outside a kindergarten classroom.”

That’d be kinda creepy if it was coming from anyone except Sonic. “That makes sense. Probably helps to know the language of the strange planet you’re on. Is our language written differently than yours?”

Sonic shrugged. “I mean, probably, but I never learned to read on my planet either, so I don’t really know what it was like.”

“You couldn’t read?” Tom asked. “Geez, how old were you? Four?”

“Somewhere around there, yeah.” Sonic’s brow furrowed in thought. “Or maybe I was three. Yeah, I think it was three. I was kinda preoccupied with surviving, so my memory’s a little hazy.”

Honestly, Tom wasn’t expecting a _yes._ “Oh. Um… that’s pretty young to be stranded on an alien planet.”

“I guess. It was better than the alternative though.” He tapped on the window. “Can I uh…?”

Tom slowed down a little. “Sure, go for it.” Sonic rolled down the window and zipped out of the truck. He checked the rearview to make sure Sonic couldn’t be seen from the road. Green Hills might be okay with Sonic, but they agreed they’d be a little more cautious with the rest of the world. For now, anyway.

After maybe thirty seconds, Sonic was back in his seat. “It’s really pretty around these parts. Lots of places to run around.” He went back to messing with the radio. Tom let him. It looked like it was gonna empty fields for a while and the radio was keeping Sonic occupied.

The roads were mostly straight and, aside from the few cars that passed by them earlier, empty. So Tom took the opportunity to gaze around. It seemed vaguely familiar but he didn’t know why. Maybe fields were just like that.

And, as he suspected, there were a _lot_ of empty fields. Some had crops growing. A few with tractors sitting idly in the middle of them. Every so often they’d even come across a pasture of horses.

They’d been driving for a while when Sonic said, “Hey Donut Lord? You know I can see the horses too, right?”

Tom blinked at him. “Yeah. Why?”

“You keep doing a thing. Like, every time we pass a field with some horses in you say something like, _‘Oh, wow, look at the horses’_ or ‘ _Hey there’s horses over there’._ ”

“Oh. It’s just something people do while they’re driving,” Tom explained. “It’s, like, mandatory to acknowledge horses. And cows.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s-” His brain short-circuited. “Uh…” Why _did_ people do that?

“It’s… what?” Sonic looked confused. “Is there _not_ a reason?”

Tom, completely baffled, admitted, “You know, I don’t think there is. I don’t know why we do it, we just do.”

“That’s weird,” Sonic told him.

“You’re not wrong.” A hill in the distance caught Tom’s eye. He squinted at it, then he remembered why this stretch of road seemed familiar to him. “Oh… oh, no _way_.”

“What?” Sonic asked. “Is it another horse?”

Tom grinned. “Nope, but it’s gonna be something cool.” He started to pull off onto the shoulder. “And also pretty.”

“Cool _and_ pretty?” Sonic took off his seatbelt. “Consider me sold.” They hopped out of the truck. “So where is it?”

“Up the hill,” Tom said. “Stay here a sec. I just wanna make sure it’s still there.”

A few years ago, he’d gotten lost in these backroads. He’d climbed the hill to see if he could recognize anything from a higher vantage point. It didn’t work because he was in the middle of nowhere, but what he _did_ find was a field of sunflowers.

He’d meant to come back, maybe show Maddie someday. Then he completely forgot about it. Hopefully it was still there. The odds of an entire field of flowers dying out was pretty slim, but not entirely impossible, and he didn’t want to drag Sonic all the way up there if the flowers were gone. Not that it’d be any trouble for him, he’d be there and back before Tom took two steps.

Luckily, the sunflowers were still there, just as bright and yellow as he remembered them. They were in orderly rows, so it was obviously owned by someone, which meant they couldn’t go _in_ the field, but they could admire it from afar. Sonic was pretty easy to impress anyway. He probably wouldn’t need to be surrounded by the sunflowers to be amazed.

Tom waved for Sonic to join him and there was a blue streak at the top of the hill before he could even put his hand down.

“Here it is! We can’t go in the field, but we can go get a closer look.” Tom started down the other side of the field. “These are sunflowers. And they’re probably the biggest flowers you’re ever gonna see. Seriously some of the flowers are bigger than my head and the stems are... “

He realized Sonic hadn’t run ahead of him yet, which was strange. Looking back to the top of the hill, he could see that Sonic hadn’t so much as moved, his eyes fixed on the field.

Tom chuckled. “What’s the matter? Intimidated by the giant sun plant?” He thought that’d snap Sonic out of whatever trance he was in, but he was still staring blankly. “Sonic?”

Sonic not being excited about seeing some new Earth thing was… kind of concerning. He was usually bouncing off the walls about this kind of stuff. Tom walked back up the hill, thinking maybe he had said something that made Sonic upset, but he had no idea what it could have been.

“You okay?” Tom asked.

“I don’t wanna go down there,” Sonic said.

There was a slight quiver to his voice that made Tom immediately kneel at Sonic’s side. “Hey buddy, it’s okay. We don’t have to go down there if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t.” He took a couple of steps back. “I really _really_ don’t.”

“Sonic,” Tom reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you oka-”

“Don’t!” Sonic recoiled so hard that he nearly fell backwards. “Don’t touch me, just… s-stay back.”

Tom stood slowly. “Do you wanna go back to the truck?”

Sonic’s gaze darted around. “I need to- I have to go, I-”

“No,” Tom said gently, “You don’t need to run, remember? I’m here to help.”

“Help?” Sonic asked. “I- no? I’m not…” Giving the field another panicked glance, he took a step back. “She wasn’t supposed to… it was my fault…”

Tom moved to block Sonic’s view of the flowers. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Sonic was probably the most upbeat kid Tom had ever met, but there were times when the years he spent alone broke the surface.

He and Maddie weren’t sure what to do the first time it had happened. There wasn’t always a conventional solution. Sometimes all he needed was a hug, other times he was so overwhelmed that just wouldn’t work.

They figured out that it was always best to just ask before doing anything. “Lil Blue, I need you to tell me how to help. Do you want a hug? Need to talk?”

Sonic instantly looked more terrified than he already was. “No.”

“No hug or no talking?” Tom asked.

“Yes. I mean _no!_ I mean…” Sonic shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Tom tried again. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

Sonic shook his head. “You’ll h-hate me if I do.”

“No I won’t,” Tom reassured him.

“How do you know that?” Sonic demanded. “Y-you don’t even know what I _did_.”

“There is _nothing_ you could do that could make me hate you.” Tom held out a hand. “Wanna go back to the truck now? We can head home if you want.”

Sonic looked past Tom for a moment, then nodded. “Okay… yeah, home sounds… nice.” He took Tom’s hand and they made their way back down the hill. There was a car that passed by, but Sonic was safely in his seat by then and Tom was getting ready to start the truck.

They drove in silence for a few minutes while Tom looked for a place to turn around. Tom didn’t ask Sonic to talk about what happened. The last time he and Maddie tried to force him to talk about something, it had resulted in him running. Not the outcome he needed right now.

“I wasn’t supposed to leave home.”

Tom was silent. Sonic rarely opened up about anything. The last time this happened, there was a massive storm that sent him spiraling into a panic attack. It took an hour before he was calm enough to talk, and even then he didn’t really say much.

“Longclaw would go outside with me sometimes. It wasn’t very often, but she only did it so I’d be safe.”

Now Tom was _really_ making sure to keep quiet. Because as rarely as Sonic talked about his past, the thing he talked about the _least_ was Longclaw. Were Tom and Maddie curious about her? Of course they were. Did Sonic flinch every time they mentioned her? Every single time.

“Longclaw, protected me. But I’m… you know, kinda wreckless… and really stupid.” Tom wanted to argue that Sonic was most definitely _not_ stupid, but he was still going with silence for now. “So one day, while she was asleep, I uh… I went outside.

“I shouldn’t have, and I _knew_ that…” He grabbed his seatbelt like it was a lifeline. “I was just gonna go out and come right back in, I wasn’t even _gone_ for that long.”

Tom spotted a driveway up ahead and pulled in to turn around.

“I came back. Everything was… fine.” Sonic went silent for so long that Tom thought that he had stopped talking entirely. “Until they showed up. They chased us, they _shot_ her out of the sky.”

Turning the truck around, Tom started heading for Green Hills. He wished he could text Maddie to prepare her for the emotional kiddo he was about to bring home.

“They were after _me._ And they never would have found her if I… if I had just.” He took a shaky breath. “She told me to go to Earth. That someone would _always_ want my powers and I could _never stop running.”_

Well, that’s where his _‘I am not allowed to have friends’_ mindset came from.

“And I went through the portal. Can you believe it? I actually _left._ ” Sonic shook his head. “I saw them, with bows and arrows and nets a-and spears and they were just running at her and… I couldn’t leave her, I tried to go back-” His voice broke. “I wasn’t fast enough. The portal closed before I could get to her.”

Tom could hear the tears in his voice and it was taking all of his willpower not to reach over and hug Sonic as tightly as he could.

“And you wanna… y-you wanna know what was s- _so_ important?” Sonic managed. “I wanted to bring Longclaw a freaking _flower._ ” He buried his face in his hand. “I-it was a little yellow f-flower, with a… a black center and I th-thought she’d like it.

“I never should’ve left her, Tom.” A choked sob escaped him as he cried, “It should’ve been _me.”_

Now, Tom felt like he had earned the right to say that not much could rattle him. He’d befriended an alien, punched a government official, became a wanted criminal, participated in a bar fight, had his truck totaled by robots, fell off a building, helped send a mad scientist flying through a portal to a planet full of mushrooms, and that all happened within the span of two days. Safe to say there wasn’t much that could faze him at this point.

But that last sentence? That got to him. Sonic was _thirteen._

Now was probably the time to say something. “Sonic,” Tom said in an even tone, “I don’t want you to say anything like that _ever_ again.” The kid didn’t run, so he took that as a sign that it was safe for him to continue. “I can’t--and I _won’t_ \--deny that what happened was bad.

“And I’m not going to tell you that it’s gonna get better, because I _don’t_ know that. I can’t pretend to know how that feels.” Truthfully, Tom couldn’t even begin to imagine it. He didn’t want to. “But I know it feels bad. And it’s _going_ to feel bad, because that’s how feeling works.

“But it is _not_ fair to blame yourself like that,” Tom told him firmly. “You can’t keep beating yourself up for a mistake that happened years ago.”

Sonic momentarily sparked. “But I got her killed.”

“Were you holding a spear?” Tom asked. “No? Then you didn’t kill her.”

“I should have _done_ something!” Sonic shouted.

“You were _three!”_ Tom responded with equal volume. Normally he wouldn’t yell, but this _needed_ to be fixed, and it was getting fixed now _._ “Sonic, you can’t keep blaming yourself for a mistake that any kid would make.

“Everybody breaks a rule every now and then. _Especially_ kids. You were a _super-powered_ toddler who was essentially under _house arrest_ for powers that you didn’t ask for. I can’t blame you for wanting to go outside for a few minutes, and I _refuse_ to let you blame yourself.

“Bad things happen. But you walking outside did _not_ kill Longclaw. Some assholes, who thought it was okay to hunt down a _child,_ killed her. For no good reason.” His tone softened. “But like I said, I know that doesn’t make it suck any less and you’ve got every right to be upset. Just… don’t say something like that again, okay? It makes me worry.”

Sonic hesitated. “I… okay.” He pulled his knees up to his chest and stared out the window.

Tom, worried he’d gone overboard, asked, “You think you’re gonna be alright?”

He shrugged. “I mean, _probably?_ I don’t know, it’s just… no one’s ever worried about me like that before. Not since Longclaw. Sounded like something she’d say though.”

“She sounds pretty smart.”

“Well, she _was_ an Owl. So… yeah. Pretty smart.” Sonic fiddled with the window controls. “But, you know, you’re pretty smart too.” He cleared his throat. “And I uh… I’m sorry for freaking out about the… flowers.”

Tom patted his shoulder. “Don’t apologize. Everybody’s got their moments.”

“They just looked so much like the flowers from my island, except they were _way_ bigger. Which was… scarier somehow. Like they were threatening me.” He glanced at Tom nervously. “Is that dumb?”

“Of course not,” Tom said. “Stuff like this just happens. You don’t get to pick what sets it off, or when.” He smiled. “But you know what we can do?”

Sonic tilted his head. “What?”

“We can go home to Pretzel Lady, then sit on the couch with way too many blankets and watch a movie.”

The kid managed a smile. “It’s not cold outside.”

“Hey,” Tom said, “There’s never a bad time for comfy blankets.”

“Whatever you say, Donut Lord.” The smile faded just as quickly as it appeared. That was fine. Tom didn’t expect his mood to improve immediately.

It was a while before they got back home, and Sonic hadn’t so much as touched the controls on the radio. He parked the truck and opened up the door, pausing for a moment to look over at Sonic.

He hadn’t moved.

Tom walked over to the other side of the truck and opened the passenger side door. “Wanna lift?”

Sonic blinked, barely registering the question. “What?”

“Yeah, okay, c’mere kid.” Tom scooped up Sonic and closed the door. Sonic looked bewildered at first, then he relaxed and let himself be carried inside.

It wasn’t even hard to hold him. He was _tiny_. Tom wondered how small Sonic might’ve been when he was younger. How little was at age ten? Or five? Or even three, when he had first arrived here?

Maddie was just coming down the stairs when they walked in. “Hey boys! You’re home early.” She noticed Sonic in Tom’s arms. “Everything okay?”

Tom gave her a look that said he’d explain in a minute, then smiled at Sonic. “Why don’t you go pick a movie, huh?”

Sonic nodded and jumped to the floor. Maddie watched him leave with increasing worry. “Is he okay?” She asked once he was safely in the living room. “He didn’t even run.”

He ushered her into the kitchen. “We had a rough ride. Got something else to add to the ‘List of Things that Freak Sonic Out to All Hell’.”

Her expression became serious. “What is it?”

“Sunflowers.” He stopped her before she could say anything. “I’ll explain later, I promise, but the kid’s had a bad couple of hours. So I’m gonna grab some blankets-”

“And I’ll help him pick a movie,” Maddie finished. “Because it’ll take him forever to pick one himself.”

Tom gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

She rolled her eyes. “You may have mentioned it before.” Shoving him gently, she added, “Now get us some blankets, it’s movie time.”

He made usual rounds around the house to gather up blankets. This was probably going to be one of their quieter movie nights, since Sonic was clearly in no mood to be his usual rambunctious self. And he still had no idea how he was going to explain all of this to Maddie later.

But he could cross that bridge when he got there.

Maddie was already putting on a movie when he got back, and Sonic sitting quietly on the couch. Tom dumped the blankets on him unceremoniously. “So! What are we watching?”

Sonic unburied himself from the pile of blankets. “Something Maddie picked. _The Incredibles_ , I think.”

“Really?” He plopped down on the couch and helped spread out the blankets. “No Keanu?”

“Nope,” Maddie said as she sat down on the other side of Sonic. “He hasn’t seen this one yet. Figured it’d be fun. Plus, I think there’s a character I think he’ll really like.” Dash, of course.

Tom tossed her some blanket. “Sounds good to me.”

Thankfully, Sonic seemed a little less upset as the movie progressed, even laughing about halfway through. But that didn’t stop Tom and Maddie from glancing at him every few minutes or so just to make sure.

He didn’t know when their next drive would be, but he hoped that it didn’t end like this one had. The three of them with a movie? Yes, absolutely. That was about the only good outcome of the trip.

But they’d definitely be avoiding that stretch road from then on.


End file.
